


Chased

by Tay (erentitanjaeger)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Canon Compliant, First Kiss, Love Confessions, M/M, Post Season 6
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-02
Updated: 2018-07-02
Packaged: 2019-06-01 02:50:16
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15133466
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/erentitanjaeger/pseuds/Tay
Summary: It’s then that Keith’s face changed, expression coloured shocked.“Wait…you remember?”It’s something they hadn’t discussed.  Shiro had been careful around the subject while they had made their way back to Earth; he had never explicitly told anyone he remembered everything that had happened above that dying star.  He hadn’t known if he wanted them to know.  Here, now though, Shiro felt Keith deserved to know he did.“I remember,” Shiro answered.  “I remember everything.”





	Chased

**Author's Note:**

> Thank you RebelBelladona on twitter for the ko-fi request! This was super sweet to work on and left me feeling soft!

They’re back on Earth, Keith’s desert home having not changed despite the long time away.

The trip had been hard.  Arduous.  The war, even more so.  After everything that had happened, everything they had been through; as individuals, as a team, as the separate bonds they all formed with each other, Shiro hadn’t expected to appreciate quiet quite like this ever again.  All those years ago, back when they had first landed on Olkari, Keith’s words rang through his head.

_“I like it.  It’s quiet out here.”_

Shiro finally understood what he had meant in that moment.

It was quiet.

Shiro did like it.

He flexed his hand.  His cybernetic one.  White and blue and flashing lights like veins running up and down its core.  The Olkarian technology coupled with Allura’s Altean alchemy made for one hell of an upgrade, one that Shiro wasn’t even sure he still deserved, but despite his familiarity with strange technology fused to his nervous system, it still took some getting used to.

Gravel crunched behind him, and Shiro doesn’t have to turn to know who is approaching.  Keith has always been light on his feet, and if he wanted to sneak up on Shiro, he most definitely could.  Shiro appreciated Keith’s caution in taking heavier steps if it meant alerting Shiro to his newfound company.

The hand placed on his shoulder was so much different to the hand placed on his shoulder back then; and yet entirely the same.

“It’s good to have you back,” Keith said, and Shiro isn’t sure if Keith is aware he seemed to be repeating history.

“It’s good to be back,” Shiro replied, regardless of whether it’s all on purpose or not.

The quiet returned.  Yet, Shiro felt words begging to leave Keith’s lips, sensed the urgency growing on his tongue.  Shiro almost laughed.  Keith was just as worried as he had been the first time they did this.  He shouldn’t have expected this time to be any different.

Shiro turned, and he’s met with a Keith so different he can hardly remember the Keith that once was.  His hard-set expression, now far more focused and far more refined.  His shoulders, filled out and broad, his older self having adapted and grown into a man Shiro had always known Keith could become.  His hair a little longer, jaw a little sharper.  Whatever remnants of youth and baby-fat having lifted off his personnel those two years caught in the quantum abyss.  It had done Keith good.

Shiro couldn’t be prouder if he tried.

The burn, however, haunted him.  Because Shiro remembered.  He remembered everything.

How desperate Keith had fought, surrounded by an uncontrolled and unfamiliar environment, bathed in information and knowledge he didn’t know and couldn’t know how to process.  His words, filled with so much hurt and emotion, Shiro could still hear it all ring throughout his ears, despite the soul that had heard it not being his own.  The smell of burning flesh.  How Shiro had hurt him, and yet Keith had still fought, still planned to die holding onto whatever last remnants of Shiro he could save.

Before Voltron, Shiro had never thought himself underserving of his accomplishments or of the praise that followed; he had worked hard for each and every thing he had been awarded.  Even now, despite the hardships that followed, or became as a result of, Shiro knew he was standing here now because of choices he had made meticulously.  He had left no room in his life for regret.

Then there was Keith…

…and Shiro felt no one was deserving of a friend like Keith.

“How are you feeling?” Keith asked, even his voice was deeper, riddled with change and development.

Instead of answering, Shiro turned, using fingers of flesh and blood to trace the line of the scarred flesh now permanently fixed to Keith’s features.  Maybe Shiro had made some choices that definitely left room for regret.

Keith stood quietly while Shiro traced the still healing wound, trying not to look so confused and utterly failing. 

“I should be asking you that,” Shiro said as way of an answer.  “You went through hell as much as I did; maybe even more so.”

Keith’s cheeks turned warm under Shiro’s fingers.

“Honestly, I feel like I’ve been through worse,” Keith’s voice was quiet while he chose his words carefully.  He reached up to grab Shiro’s fingers, clutching them like a life line.  Shiro remembered another time Keith clutched his fingers, Shiro’s only lifeline.  “It was worth it.  It was all worth it.”

The words shook Shiro to his core.  He knew words were so easy to say, but when Keith spoke, he spoke with such conviction you had no choice but to believe him.  Shiro gazed sadly, tiredly, at Keith’s face, at what he’d been put through to acquire something, someone, that should never have put him through that in the first place.

It’s then that Keith’s face changed, expression coloured shocked.

“Wait…you remember?”

It’s something they hadn’t discussed.  Shiro had been careful around the subject while they had made their way back to Earth; he had never explicitly told anyone he remembered everything that had happened above that dying star.  He hadn’t known if he wanted them to know.  Here, now though, Shiro felt Keith deserved to know he did.

“I remember,” Shiro answered.  “I remember everything.”

Keith’s eyes turned watery, his expression hardened, as if fighting back tears. 

“I’m sorry,” he said, eyes downcast. 

Shiro rips his eyes away from where he had been gazing at their fingers still tangled together.

“Don’t be,” Shiro isn’t sure he could ever convince Keith that what had happened wasn’t his fault.  He knew all too well what it was like to take events you had no control over upon your shoulders like you had.  It was part of being a leader; part of being a black paladin.  “Everything you did, Keith, everything that happened up there; you did your best with what you had.  You made such hard decisions.  Decisions even I’m not sure I could have made if our positions were switched.”

Keith looked to Shiro, tired and regretful.  Shiro knew the feeling too well.

“I fought you.”

Shiro let out a small sigh.  It was just like Keith to justify how he saved Shiro’s life, Shiro only standing here now because of him.

“I wouldn’t have gone down any other way; Haggar had too hard of a hold on me.”

“I took your arm.”

“And I got a new one.”

“…I hurt you.”

Shiro moved closer, untangling their fingers only so he could cup Keith’s newly defined jaw and make their eyes meet.  Shiro was good at confrontation.  As an officer, a mentor, a leader, he had always been.  This?  This wasn’t confrontation.  This was a confession.  He wasn’t sure if he deserved to say it, but he knew more than anything else, Keith deserved to hear it.

“Keith, I love you, too.”  All of Keith’s supposed control on the situation fell away as his eyes bugged out of their sockets and his fingers tightened where they cupped Shiro’s.  “You’re my best friend.  My own exploding star.  Everything you’ve been through, everything you’ve fought for, I couldn’t be prouder of how far you’ve come.”

Keith’s face was still covered in shock, but turning hopeful.  Then pensive.

“I also said you’re my brother…“ Leave it to Keith to even deny what he wanted in the face of getting it.  In that, in this particular situation, they were very much alike.

“And you’re my brother, too.  If that’s what you want me to be, then that’s all I’ll be, but what I mean now goes in an entirely different direction.  I love you, Keith.  I couldn’t not love you.”

Shiro wasn’t so sure he liked the quiet anymore, when that was all that followed. 

He went to remove his hands, went to give Keith some space in light of what he learnt, but as he did, Keith only moved forward, chasing Shiro’s movement.  Like he chased Shiro through that black hole and into that laboratory.  Like he had chased Shiro through a vicious war and an unforgiving battle.  Like he had chased Shiro to this moment. 

Shiro figured it was time he stopped running away.

When their lips met, Shiro felt that dying star all over again, but in the warmest way possible.  It swallowed him whole and left him breathless, though that could also be Keith’s lips covering his.  Warm breath fanned over his face, and arms circled around his shoulders, holding him tight and in a way Shiro never knew he could experience.  He kissed Keith back, wrapping his arms around Keith in return, pulling their bodies close and tilting his head to deepen the kiss as best he could. 

He wasn’t shocked when a tongue prodded at the seem of his lips, and Shiro opened without question.  All of Keith’s newfound confidence poured from his actions into the kiss, and Shiro felt shivers run down his spine as he tried to meet it all as best he could.  Their tongues danced, spit was exchanged.  It was kind of gross.  Sort of a mess.

Absolutely amazing.

Shiro wished Keith hadn’t gone through what he did to get to where they were now, but he also knew that even if the universe could not pull them apart, no other being, living or dead, could dare to try.

The parted when their lungs screamed for air and their lips throbbed and bruised.  They didn’t go far, noses still touching, lips still grazing and wet eyes gazing upon the others’.  Shiro wanted to live in this moment forever if it meant he could immortalise the look on Keith’s face.  He hoped he was returning it with one of his own.

“I love you,” Keith said, lips brushing Shiro’s as he spoke.  “I love you.  I love you. I lo-“

Shiro kissed Keith again, knowing there would be no other way of shutting him up.  “You’re my everything,” Shiro whispered, pouring all he could into each word spoken.  “You chased me across time and space.”

“I’ll chase you to the ends of the universe.”

Shiro grinned, continuing to look into Keith’s shining orbs and seeing his own universe in those deep, violet irises.  “Don’t bother.  You caught me; I’ll stop running.”

**Author's Note:**

> Find me on twitter @KinkyKeithy


End file.
